Digital BW, The Print

The metamerism is there, it's slight, but it's there.  There is a
slight magenta cast under tungsten and an ever so slight greenish cast
under most fluorescents.  In most daylight, they appear pretty neutral.
I've discussed this at length with people and owners on several message
boards, and looked at sample prints at COMPUSA, Best Buy, and Circuit
City.  I've come to the conclusion that it's there, it's consistent, and
most people don't see it because they are not as critical about it as
me.  In fact, when I pointed it out to my wife, she said that she could
see it only after I pointed it and in comparison to another print.  But
even after pointing it out, she still said she didn't care at all.  It
all made me think, "Geez, why should I care if the people who would be
seeing it don't?"  And the other side of this is that the tonal
gradations are superb, it prints on RC paper with a 73 year tested fade
life, spraying the paper easily makes it waterproof, and there is no
bronzing or gloss differential.  Overall, it's a great print for
commercial applications.
     As for the banding, yes, I've seen that too.  But it's a driver
problem due to oversharpening that HP is well aware of.  It might be
better called a "banding pattern".  They are working on it and will have
a replacement driver update soon.  But the result is that it really
makes prints appear very sharp, and the banding pattern is not visible
(to me at least) without a loupe.  Also, there's little chance of ink
clogging becoming a big and consistent problem since it uses
free-flowing dye ink and the heads are changed with every new ink
cartridge.
     The printer is not without faults, but with it's great tonal
transitions and 73 year archival RC paper printing, it's great for my
"people" work.  I had to face some hard facts this year during the slow
holiday break.  I don't own or plan to buy a medium or large format
camera, and I don't specialize in landscapes or still lifes.  I'm never
going to have negatives or digital files that will print with the beauty
many people achieve with a bigger negative, scanning, and specialized
inks and papers in wide format Epson printers.  My strength is in
people, and my needs are not the same as a fine art approach would
dictate.  It was time I recognized this, moved on and started spending
more time actually taking pictures instead of worrying and waiting about
getting the perfect inkjet printer set-up.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Staver [mailto:daniel@...] 
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 3:08 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Good B/W prints with epson 2100 / 
> 2200 not possible? I'll bui an Hp 7960...
<snip>
> I got a print from the 7960 in one of the exchanges, and under the
> fluorescent light on my desk it exhibits strong metamerism, 
> although not
> nearly as unpleasant as the metamerism I get with the 
> Ultrachrome inks.
> I could also see some slight microbanding, but I'm not sure 
> if this is a
> problem with the printer in general.